K5II issue

It's a long time since I posted here, but after years of sterling service my K5II has recently developed a problem and I was wondering if any of you experts out there can offer any thoughts.

I was out with my K5II and DA 16-50 and DA 50-135. I have at times had some issues with slow AF responses, mainly on the former lens, and put it down to dirty connections, as cleaning them (on both the lens and body) would resolve it. But then one day everything was working fine, but the next I hit a multiple of problems with both lenses on the body.

- AF stopped working entirely, and I was only able to work in MF. When the lens switch was switched to AF, the rear panel indicator flashes between whatever the camera switch is switched to (AF.S/AF.C/MF) and MF.

- In AV mode (my usual mode) the exposure length in the top left corner of the rear display (and top display) was unstable, constantly flickering between different exposure lengths. (When reviewing photos after taking there was sometimes an issue of over or under exposure, implying that this was genuine variation, with the actual exposure length depending on the "reading" when pressing the shutter.)

- Another problem I discovered when reviewing some photos later - regardless of which lens the metadata showed a focal length of 35mm, with only a couple showing the actual focal length used. This may also explain why some of the photos were soft - I had anti-shake on, and presumably it was assuming 35mm for the purpose of operating.

- LV was not working: press the LV button and the mirror switched up, but the rear screen remained blank and after a couple of seconds the mirror returned.

- No access to menus: press the menu button and although the first menu (FIle format etc) flashed up very briefly, it then disappeared. It meant that I had no access to any of the menus for changing anything.

- Similarly any of the other buttons on the rear controller: WB/timer/flash/saturation etc: all flashed briefly on the rear screen but then disappeared again. Similarly the info button.

Interestingly in review mode, everything was fine - I could page through the various info pages, with a full histogram showing. And photos were fine (other than the exposure issue and anti shake softness mentioned above).

Just to add - the battery was fully charged.

Thinking I would need to send the camera away and so be without one for a while, I borrowed my son's K5. As I wanted to use my DA 16-50 rather than his DA 18-55, I swapped the lenses between the two bodies, only to discover that with the DA 18-55 on my K5II body, everything worked fine. This led me to try a range of other lenses: a DA 55-300, a 100 macro and a Sigma 10-20 - all with no problem.

What is more, the DA 16-50 and DA 50-135 both work fine on my son's K5 body.

So has anyone got any ideas what might be going on, please? The problem is clearly specific to those two lenses on my K5II body. But why both of them (when nothing else) and why did the problem first occur with both on the same day? All somewhat intriguing!

I suspect that I will need to send something off for a full repair/service, but if it is a body/lens combination that's the problem, that a lot of kit to send off at once!

Thank you!

If the camera is OK with other lenses, then I'd start to look at the two that are affected. Perhaps start with cleaning the electronic contacts on both lenses and the body, then remount firmly, making sure there is good contact between lens and body. That might help cure any intermittent connection.

However, as the lenses work fine on the other camera, that may not be the issue, so ultimately a service might be the only way forwards. Perhaps phone the repair house first to have a chat with a technician?

Further to John's suggestions, it could be worth restoring the settings to factory defaults and is the firmware to the latest spec ?

Just a thought - I don't have either 16-50 and 50-135, but aren't they both SDM? And the Pentax lenses you mention that do work with your K5II not SDM. Perhaps your camera has developed a problem with SDM lenses. If so, it might be as simple as a bit of muck on a single contact that is crucial for SDM but not other lenses. Can you lay your hands on another SDM lens to check it out?

Steve

I think the SDM power contacts are just inside the body? Have you cleaned them too, or just those on the mount?

It does sound rather like the SDM contacts or if it isn't those something to do with the SDM circuitry in the camera.

It sounds to me like, at best, the lenses are not communicating properly with the camera, but with so many functions affected it's likely a connection from the mount to the rest of the electronics. However, due to the breadth of the problems, I think it's more likely a failure of the electronics in general, which is unlikely to be economical to repair.

Many thanks for everyone's comments. I like the logic of the SDM connection within the camera, as it explains why the two lenses work with the K5 even though not with my K5II whilst other lenses still work with my K5II. I will try cleaning the relevant contacts in the body and see if that solves it. However if JAK and Jonathan-Mac suggest, it could go deeper than that. I will see what happens and report back.

I see mention in another thread of a repairer in Shepperton, Alan Marlow, not too far from me, so he may be worth a try if it might require further delving. Otherwise, I have a significant birthday coming up in October and the new DSLR release may prove timely ....

https://images.app.goo.gl/onqzBJh6hobVcDDJ9

Hopefully will help you identify the in-body SDM contacts.

Thank you. Looking in the body, I had guessed that these were the ones but your link confirmed it. I had in fact cleaned them previously, but i have done so again just in case, Alas, it seems to have made no difference, so I guess it is going deeper than that, as others warned.

But thank you again everyone for your help.

I thought I would give an update on the above. I spoke to a couple of repairers and whilst happy to chat, they said that they didn't know what specifically would cause the issue of my SDM lenses interfering with the camera operation.

So the solution I have gone with is to dig out my old 18-55 and 55-200 which I had before I upgraded the lenses - and as expected, having diagnosed what the actual problem, as expected everything works fine. So I am back to using the K5II. And whilst the 18--55 isn't quite up to the 16-50 optically, it is still pretty good for 95% of what I do (and I had forgotten how light it was - particularly useful on a 15 mile hilly hike in muggy weather, as I experienced a week or so ago!).

And I will let that last me until my hoped for camera upgrade later in the year - at which point I should be able to start using my 16-50 and 50-135 again and my other son can have an upgrade for his K7.